Two years ago, Chris Marlow traveled to Cape Town, South Africa and Zimbabwe to visit friends and a community developer who focused on aiding orphaned children and widows. During his trip, Chris was overwhelmed with compassion for the children orphaned by parents that had become victims of the AIDS pandemic that had put an increased strain on local organizations, ultimately slowing the developmental stages of its communities growth. With a heavy heart, he promised to bring awareness to the children’s unneccessary plight by imploring his closest friends to act. In 2008, upon invitation from a former government official in Cairo, Egypt, Chris returned to Africa with with his friend, Jeff Mangum. The two were astonished to find that thousands upon thousands of children lived in extreme ... (more)

Two years ago, Chris Marlow traveled to Cape Town, South Africa and Zimbabwe to visit friends and a community developer who focused on aiding orphaned children and widows. During his trip, Chris was overwhelmed with compassion for the children orphaned by parents that had become victims of the AIDS pandemic that had put an increased strain on local organizations, ultimately slowing the developmental stages of its communities growth. With a heavy heart, he promised to bring awareness to the children’s unneccessary plight by imploring his closest friends to act. In 2008, upon invitation from a former government official in Cairo, Egypt, Chris returned to Africa with with his friend, Jeff Mangum. The two were astonished to find that thousands upon thousands of children lived in extreme poverty. More precisely, the children lacked the most basic elements of life—housing, food, adequate shelter and an education. The children were no longer faceless statistics to Chris and Jeff; they had names, dreams and were searching for something valuable—hope.

After months of daydreaming and praying for what their tangible response should be, Chris and Jeff decided to launch Help End Local Poverty: A movement of hope, love and story. The H.E.L.P. Founders, Chris Marlow and Jeff Mangum, have a simple vision, to create a tribe of individuals who long to rescue destitute orphans and restore their lives. The aim of H.E.L.P. is to connect the West with local leaders in developing nations to erradicate extreme poverty and create sustainable development at the local level. And lastly, H.E.L.P. wants to go further with the betterment of the organization’s rescued children by removing any burdeon the local community may have to feed, cloth and house them. (less)